Frequently Asked Questions About Our Team

What kind of dogs do you have?

Our team consists mainly of Alaskan huskies. An Alaskan husky is a dog that is basically a mixture of several different breeds but primarily a husky background. Some mushers have bred hounds with their teams, others have bred retrievers, and still others have bred racing dogs such as grey hounds into their teams. It depends on what type of characteristics the musher is looking for. There have been several "unusual" teams seen around the mushing world including one made up of Irish setters and another made up of poodles. In cases where non-northern breeds of dogs were used, they exhibited signs of problems with frost-bite when their coats would become matted together exposing bare skin. Several years ago, both the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest have made it mandatory that only "northern breed" dogs (i.e., huskies) be used in these races.

How many dogs do you have?

We have thirteen sled dogs. Some mushers, like the professional mushers who run the Iditarod, may have a hundred or more dogs in their dog lot. We don't have the room, nor the financial backing to have a kennel that large. We have just enough dogs that we can go out and have a good time with one or two sleds and compete in most of the mid- or long-distance races. Because our team is small however, we don't have the ability to substitute dogs if one becomes sick or injured. We simply take the dog out of the team and run with fewer dogs.

How much food do you feed your dogs? And what do they eat?

During the summer we go through about sixty pounds of dog food a week. In the winter that will double and then some. When the dogs are working they need a lot more calories both to do their work and to keep warm. We look for a food that is both high in protein and high in fat. During a race a dog can burn as much as 6,000 (six thousand) calories a day. Not bad for a 50 pound dog, eh? If humans were to eat that much they'd surely have a weight problem.

We supplement our dogs feed with fish. During the summer, many Alaskans clean out their freezers of all the fish left over from the previous summer -- they'll refill them with more salmon as the summer progresses. Our dogs love salmon, pollack, hooligan, and halibut. If the fish is thawed they will swollow it whole! If it is frozen, they'll sit and gnaw at it sort of like a fish-cicle. During the summer frozen fish makes a nice refreshing treat while they lay around in the sunshine.

Are there any special precautions you take to protect your dogs during cold weather?

Each dog has it's own house filled with straw. They burrow down in it and are quite comfortable even during the coldest nights. I have put my hand inside of their houses when it was -50 degrees (f) outside and found it to be nice and warm inside.

When we run the dogs, we have a supply of "booties" that we carry in the sled bag. These are made from polar fleece, just like jackets, hats or gloves. They stay on the dogs feet by mean of a Velcro strap that goes around the top. Most of the time we do not use the booties, except if the snow conditions are icy (the ice crystals can cut their feet), or if it is a little on the warm side because the warmer snow tends to ball up between their toes. During a nice cold day however there is not enough moisture in the snow to allow it to pack (you can't even have a snowball fight!).

We also have dog blankets that can be put over the dog like a coat. They are also made with polar fleece, with a layer of nylon on top to stop the wind. These fasten around the dogs belly and neck by means of wide straps and are held in place with Velcro.

It is also important that the dogs get plenty of water during cold weather. Huskies are a breed that tends not to drink water straight so we have to fool them on occasion by mixing a little bit of food in with the water and giving them a sort of "soup." This is called "baiting" the water. Sometimes on a race, mushers will carry a pack of hotdogs in their food supplies to get the dogs to eat as well.

How do you control your dog team? Is it like driving a team of horses?

Unlike horses, a dog team is controlled by voice commands only. The lead dogs are trained to know several distinct commands. "Gee" means turn right. "Haw" means turn left. "On by" means to keep going straight ahead and is often used when coming to a fork in the trail or when meeting another team on the trail. "Come gee" tells the leaders to turn to the right and come back to the musher -- it is used when you want the team to turn around on the trail. "Come haw" means the same thing but to do it on the left side.

The expression "mush" is not used. Instead we generally use the term "HIKE" to tell them to go. In the case of my team, they've learned to associate the work "OKAY" with "GO". When I take people for rides, I tell them that I have only two rules they must abide by: (1) Always keep one hand firmly on the driving bow (the handle bar of the sled); and (2) NEVER say "okay". Generally when I ask them if they have the rules straight, they are relaxing on the runners, without holding on, and their response is "okay." Well, the results are the team takes off and dumps the rider squarely on their backside in the trail. It usually only happens once before the person realizes that they must abide by the rules.

According to a number of sources, the term "mush" comes from the French term "marche" which loosely translated means "to go" or "to march." The terms used in dog mushing tend to have crisp, clear and distinct sounds. Dogs tend to hear only one syllable and react to that. Thus the commands we use are short and simple.

How do you train your dogs to run and pull?

One of the greatest misconceptions about dog mushing is that we must "drive" the dogs and force them to work. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. All dogs are born with an instinct to pull. If you've ever had a puppy on a leash you'll understand. Most people do not want this in a dog so they "break" them of the habit and train them to "heel" and walk dutifully at their side. In the case of dog mushing we want to encourage the dogs to pull.

We start our dogs into the team when they are about a year to a year and a half old. If you start them too much sooner, their bones and muscles have not matured enough and they can get hurt or injured and this could turn them off to running in a team. We like to put our puppies (actually yearlings) in the team next to an older dog to show them the ropes so to speak. Sometimes they might hesitate when all the rest of the team suddenly takes off, but they quickly realize that everyone is running and having a good time and they join right in. We also try to start off with short trips with the puppies so they associate running with having a good time rather than work. As they mature, we move them around in the team and find the place where they fit in the best. Sometimes a dog has an innate desire to run out front and makes a good leader. Sometimes they are just happy being in the middle of the team.

We have one dog, Yukon, who is a team dog, but he is also left handed. He has to run on the left side of the team or he has problems. If he gets put on the right side of the line, he'll jump over the gang line and literally force the other dog to jump over him and get onto the right side of the team.

Sled dogs love to run. When you go someplace where mushers are getting their teams ready you can't help but notice the exitement the dogs feel. Sometimes they'll jump up and down in their harnesses. Several of ours will actually jump over four feet vertically! Sometimes they'll grab the lines in front of them and pull backwards, dragging their team mates with it. Our dog Yukon can actually drag four dogs backwards while they are pulling forward! Because they do this, and because they have very sharp teeth that will cut through a line, we have steel cable running down the middle of our gang lines. If by chance a dog were to cut through the gang line, the dogs in front would break free and run down the trail without the sled. This could be very bad because the musher might not be able to get them back.

Have you ever lost your team while you were running them?

Unfortunately this is one of the misfortunes any dog driver must contend with during their career (hopefully only once). Our team got away from me one day when they pulled both snow hooks out of the snow. It was right at the start of the day and suddenly, when they hooks broke loose, they had two hundred pounds less weight on the sled and they just took off running like the wind with the sled bouncing along behind. I tried running after them, by my two legs, in heavy boots and a heavy parka, were no match for them. Luckily a guy with a snowmachine ("snowmobile" if you live down south) saw it happen and gave me a ride to try and catch them. We lost sight of the team as they rounded corner about a mile ahead of us. At that point we had to follow them by their tracks, which were going the opposite direction as the others who were using the trail, and the divits made by the snow hooks as they bounced up and down.

My biggest fear was that the team would run into someone else's team, head-on and they'd end up in a dog fight. I spotted my sled, with team attached down a side trail and when we headed after them I noticed they had in fact, run into another team. Luckily however, both teams stopped and the leaders were standing nose-to-nose just looking at each other. The young lady who had the other team was tying my sled off to a tree when I came to rescue my team (or was it to rescue her team?). In the end, everything turned out well and everybody got home safely.